Dad and Partner pay (including adopting parents and same-sex couples): may receive up to two weeks of Dad and Partner Pay

Both payments are taxable and paid at the rate of the National Minimum Wage.

What is Paid Parental Leave?
The government-funded Paid Parental Leave scheme was introduced on 1 January 2011 and is eligible for all employees in Australia.

Employees are entitled to 12 months of unpaid parental leave. They can also request an additional 12 months of leave. If eligible, you will receive Parental Leave Pay at the national minimum wage for up to 18 weeks.

In addition, an employee may also be entitled to additional paid parental leave by their employer. Employees need to check their Enterprise Agreement, contract or policy for details on this as it is specific to each organisation.

Who is eligible?
All employees in Australia are entitled to parental leave. Employees are able to take parental leave if they:

are the primary carer of a newborn or recently adopted child

have worked for their employer for at least 12 months

meet Australian residency requirements

have an individual adjusted taxable income of $150K a year or less

are on leave or not working from the time they become the child’s primary carer until the end of their Paid Parental Leave period, and

have met the work test (that is, have performed qualifying work during the work test period. Usually this test will be met if the employee has worked at least 330 hours in the 10 months before the birth.)

Casual workers, contractors and self-employed people are also eligible to receive Paid Parental Leave. In the event of a stillbirth or infant death, an employee may still be eligible for Parental Leave Pay.

Parental Leave Pay can be claimed through the Australian Government Department of Human Services. For more information visit the Department of Human Services.

Having another child
Employees who have taken parental leave don’t have to work for another 12 months before they can take another period of parental leave with that same employer. You must give at least four weeks written notice to your employer before the end date of your original leave period. Check out the template Request to extend parental leave.

If you have started work with a new employer then you will need to work with that employer for at least 12 months before you can take parental leave.

Circle In was established to improve the lives of working parents. We are building a global community for the modern working parent- from considering, to pregnancy, to parenthood, and back to work again. We also partner with leading companies to deliver a unique parental leave support program.